The recent service trip to New Orleans brought St. Norbert students to
Morris Jeff Community School, where they worked with students learning
to read.

February 2011

Community engagement emphasis earns national recognition

In New Orleans last month, students traveling with Tynisha and Christopher Meidl (Teacher Education) worked on reading intervention with at-risk learners at a new post-Katrina community school.

Other student groups also are back from winter break TRIPS programs during which they assisted at clinics in Nicaragua; undertook mission work in St. Lucia; learned about urban education in Chicago; built one-on-one relationships at a community for developmentally disabled adults in Iowa; and served at homeless shelters in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.

Meanwhile, Beth Tarasawa (Sociology) is launching a new service-learning course called Community Building and Social Change. This semester her students will collaborate on community initiatives with Harmony Café, St. John the Evangelist Homeless Shelter, St. Vincent de Paul and the Green Bay public schools to address real-world issues of citizen engagement and program access.

It’s all part of a service-oriented mission that places St. Norbert among leaders in higher ed. Last month the college joined 114 other institutions designated with the current Carnegie Classification on Community Engagement. St. Norbert was the only private college or university in the state so honored.

The classification was first offered in 2006. Selection is based on applications from participating institutions describing the nature and extent of their community engagement. St. Norbert’s designation places it in company that includes Cornell University, Denison University, Bucknell University, Oberlin College and the University of Notre Dame.

“Through a classification that acknowledges significant commitment to and demonstration of community engagement, the foundation encourages colleges and universities to become more deeply engaged, to improve teaching and learning, and to generate socially responsive knowledge to benefit communities,” says Carnegie president Anthony Bryk.

The Carnegie classification is one of many rankings that distinguish the college. In U.S. News & World Report’s listing of top liberal arts colleges, St. Norbert ranks among the top 10 Catholic colleges. And it is named one of “The Best in the Midwest” in The Princeton Review’s Best 366 Colleges.